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Onward develops bold and practical ideas for the next generation of centre right thinkers and leaders

REPORT
Levelling Up Pensions To Boost Savings By £2.8 Trillion

How pension reform can boost opportunity for poorer workers and regions.

REPORT
Time to Serve: Helping young people complete civic service

Summary report of an Onward and NCS roundtable, exploring the case for encouraging more young people to complete civic service.

REPORT
Global Britain: How should the UK approach reforms to international corporate taxation?

This is a summary report from an Onward roundtable held in partnership with the Joffe Trust

Feb 22
13:00-
14:00
EVENT

Tourism recovery and the fabric of communities

A private roundtable with Nigel Huddleston MP.
with:
Feb 9
19:00-
21:00
EVENT

Business Network Dinner: Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP

Business Network
A private dinner for Onward’s Business Network with Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP
with:
Jan 18
11:00-
12:00
EVENT

Making it Smarter

Using technology to rethink the capabilities of UK manufacturing.
with:
Recent press
If Boris Johnson goes, his critics may find they like the next Prime Minister even less
Boris Johnson pledges to ‘address underlying culture’ of lockdown parties in bid to save job
Depriving children of arts and sport lessens their prospects
Widening north-south wealth gap threatens Boris Johnson’s red wall
BBC Radio 4’s Money Box feature Levelling Up Pensions
Free market, tax-cutting economics will not ease the UK’s cost of living squeeze
REPORT
Levelling Up Pensions To Boost Savings By £2.8 Trillion

How pension reform can boost opportunity for poorer workers and regions.

REPORT
Time to Serve: Helping young people complete civic service

Summary report of an Onward and NCS roundtable, exploring the case for encouraging more young people to complete civic service.

REPORT
Global Britain: How should the UK approach reforms to international corporate taxation?

This is a summary report from an Onward roundtable held in partnership with the Joffe Trust

Feb 9
19:00-
21:00
EVENT

Business Network Dinner: Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP

Business Network
A private dinner for Onward’s Business Network with Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP
with:
Dec 8
10:00-
11:00
EVENT

Further Behind?

How we can level up Further Education and give people the opportunity to go far whilst staying local.
with:
Feb 22
13:00-
14:00
EVENT

Tourism recovery and the fabric of communities

A private roundtable with Nigel Huddleston MP.
with:

Onward develops bold and practical ideas for the next generation of centre right thinkers and leaders

Our mission​

Onward is a modernising think tank whose mission is to develop bold and practical ideas to boost economic opportunity and strengthen communities in all parts of the United Kingdom.

We are not affiliated to any party but believe in a mainstream conservatism. We recognise the value of markets and support the good that government can do, and believe that a strong society is the foundation of both. We want to seize the opportunities of the future while preserving the accumulated knowledge of the past. We believe that most people are hard working, aspirational and decent, but that many do not have the opportunities to fulfil their potential.

Our goal is to address the needs of the whole country: young as well as old; urban as well as rural; in all parts of the UK – particularly places that feel neglected or ignored in Westminster – by working with ordinary people directly and developing practical policies that work.

"Into the arena, Onward stepped. The in-flight refueller. The next modernising thinktank. The engine which ensured that just as the process of government might be wearing thin, the Conservative Party was able to renew and refurbish its message, its personnel, its appeal and its coalition.”
Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
“The question is how we forge an open-feeling, forward-looking conservatism that speaks equally to all. And I believe Onward is exactly what we need.”
Baroness Davidson
Former Leader of the Scottish Conservatives and Member of the House of Lords
“Thinktanks are expected to think the unthinkable but I don’t want us to think the unworkable. We have to think things that work politically, that is that pay some attention to whether people support them, where the costs fall and whether they work in practice."
Lord Finkelstein
Chairman of Onward and Member of the House of Lords
"The work of Onward has already, in the last three years, has been fantastic. I have followed it closely, I have pinched a whole bunch of your ideas, but I want to pinch some more ... I need the ideas and I know Onward has the energy to provide them."
Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
“Thank you to Onward and for all the fantastic work you do more broadly, which is enormously appreciated I know across Government and by Number 10 as well.”
Chris Philp MP
Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy

Our Work

Our work is focused on the most pressing issues facing the United Kingdom today. Our four programmes are:

Levelling Up

Reducing economic disparities between places

Social Fabric

Repairing the ties that bind communities together

Getting to Zero

Practical and popular ways to decarbonise the economy

Future Politics

Understanding our changing political settlement

Press

Our work is regularly featured in print, broadcast and online media, including through op-eds and broadcast interviews from the Onward team.

Times Red Box

Depriving children of arts and sport lessens their prospects

Francesca Fraser writes for Times Red Box on the value of taking children away from their desks for short periods during the day.

City AM

Tories need to change their green tune to play well in much-needed constituencies

Onward's new Policy Fellow, Ted Christie-Miller, writes for CityAM about the need for Conservatives to prioritise net zero commitments as the election approaches.

Times Red Box

Pension auto-enrolment for all brings us one step closer to levelling up

Will Tanner and Richard Holden MP write for Times Red Box about our recent report, Levelling Up Pensions.

iNews

Vetting Theresa May’s New Year’s honours lists confirmed my worst fears about the system

Will Tanner on why the current honours system should be reformed, and the dividend Boris Johnson could receive by doing so.

Give single-earner families a £2,500 tax break, says think tank

Media coverage summary of Family Fortunes

House Magazine

Conservatives must remember why they won in 2019 if they want to triumph again

Times Red Box

Depriving children of arts and sport lessens their prospects

Francesca Fraser writes for Times Red Box on the value of taking children away from their desks for short periods during the day.

City AM

Tories need to change their green tune to play well in much-needed constituencies

Onward's new Policy Fellow, Ted Christie-Miller, writes for CityAM about the need for Conservatives to prioritise net zero commitments as the election approaches.

Times Red Box

Pension auto-enrolment for all brings us one step closer to levelling up

Will Tanner and Richard Holden MP write for Times Red Box about our recent report, Levelling Up Pensions.

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